


Whirlwind

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-07
Updated: 2008-01-01
Packaged: 2019-01-19 06:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12405102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Tossed, turned, fragmented -- and condensed. Love a thousand times, a thousand ways; a hundred words.





	1. Shorter

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

_Characters: Albus, Gellert, Elphias_   


It was never romance that he craved.

Fingernails scraped slightly at the man’s neck and the two shared a slight smile. The taller reached over and plucked the quill from his partner’s free hand, studiously ignoring the fingers pressing softly into his hair.

A shorter boy _(shorter in so many ways)_ watched them through a hole in the fence. He gripped the fence-posts, his knuckles growing steadily whiter. They’d never know he knew.

He may not have been brilliant. He may not have been blonde and beautiful.

He may have merely been loyal, and puppyish, and young.

But he was. 


	2. Knowledge

_Characters: Severus, Lily_   


She knew, you know.

She saw his fingers curl at her touch. She felt the heat of his blush when she whispered into his ear. She saw the bitterness of his scowl when she leaned into a messy-haired kiss.

She’d lie awake, a curious little half-smile on her face, the wondrous knowledge deep in her heart. Sometimes she’d wonder what it would be like to kiss him and feel the explosion of his feelings. She loved the idea that she might not feel anything at that kiss.

She knew, she saw, and yet she continued. For the power was unbearable. 


	3. Salt and Bitter

_Characters: Ron, Hermione_   


Angry words shot across the room like bullets, tinged with bitterness and something salt, something like _regret._

She’d scream his name, rage and tension coating each syllable and he’d yell back and they’d argue: addicted to the passion. But he never watched her lips forming their cruel, cutting phrases, nor did he watch her flushed, blushed cheeks, so full of irritation. He watched her eyes: watched as she’d coyly peek from under her eyelashes, a coquettish look that was for his benefit alone.

He didn’t think anyone would believe him if he said that Hermione Granger was a real tease. 


	4. Pioneers

_Characters: Teddy, Victoire_   


Molly said that she took after her father, and that made her very special indeed. Ron said she took after her mother, and that made her even better. 

But he didn’t see any of that. He saw what was so often hidden behind drapes of silvery hair and dazzling eyes. He saw a girl who had lived, like he, in the aftermath of a war, within a family torn apart by prejudice and history. He saw them together as pioneers: allowing the Black and Weasley families to reunite, to finally be reborn. He saw them taking on the world. Together. 


	5. Good

_Characters: Molly, Arthur_

Her first boyfriend was six foot two with rippling muscles and a chiselled jaw. At fifteen she’d sit on his lap and feel his hands at the violin curves of her body. She’d shiver with a frisson of excitement and lust.

Arthur isn’t handsome. Too gangly, too redheaded, too dull-pale. But Arthur is _beautiful,_ and the beauty’s all in the soft smiles that calm her, and the long fingers that guide her and the good words that keep her. There is no danger, merely softness and warmth. She’s safe. It’s not lust. It’s trust. Something inside tells her: it’s love. 


	6. Water

_Characters: Sirius, Regulus, Bella, Cissa, Andromeda_   


He remembers the quintessential sunset on his brother's face as his cousins played. _That,_ he thinks, _is bloody Toujours Pur._

And when Regulus dies he mourns. A heavy, sinking mourning like bricks of lead. He weeps for two days straight, neither eating nor sleeping. He mourns for Regulus, and for Bella, and for Cissa, and he hates 'Dromeda for escaping. He hates her for turning her back while her family _(blood being so much thicker than water)_ were sucked into this dark, loveless abyss and while he can he loves them, though they don't know it. Because someone needs to.  



	7. Marigolds

_Characters: Amos, Cedric. Apologies for the major angst.  
_

Afterwards, people used to tell him that they were _sorry for his loss._

But he hadn't _lost_ Cedric, because he knew exactly where Cedric was: he was in a coffin under the marigolds.

He hadn't lost Cedric. Cedric had been ripped from him, leaving great welts of wounds that became infected and never, ever healed. The worst were the mornings when he'd wake and not remember, worst how somehow _every single word_ sounds like 'Ced' when you're listening for it. It was worse because he was a parent burying a child and the world wept for how unnatural that was.

 


	8. Foxtrot

_Characters: Lucius, Narcissa, Bellatrix (With special thanks to Sara)_   


He'd dance with her sister, feel her hair with his fingertips. He'd spin her round the room like a tornado, and slip a wedding band onto her finger.

He'd stare across a darkened room, but never catch her eye. He'd never ask for her hand in the next, but when he spun Narcissa, it was her frame he circled.

He’d feel her sweat-slicked skin, imagining it was thicker, skin that wouldn’t break when he scraped it with his nails.

He’d kiss her sister like a melting candle, but when the curtains were drawn, he'd see dark hair and mysterious eyes. 

 


	9. Just

_Characters: Godric, Rowena  
 _

It wasn’t that he _loved_ her.  


It was just that she brightened his every moment. He just liked to watch her. And talk to her, sit with her, be with her, touch her skin and thread his fingers through her hair.

It wasn’t that he loved her, it was just that he couldn’t imagine being without her, that when she fell pregnant with Helena he felt sick to his stomach. It wasn’t that he loved her, it was just that whenever he entered a room, he searched for her eyes and her eyes alone.

He just liked to watch her. 


End file.
